Time After Time After Time
by StuffedCrustLord
Summary: I was furious with my Master after we left Earth. To think that he actually had the nerve to just walk up and offer someone else my job right in front of me! Of course, he did end up telling me later why he would do such a thing, but I still found his reasoning behind such a decision to be a bit silly. But that was a very, VERY long time ago.


The extremely boring twenty one minutes finally passed. Both myself and my escort Whis had finally arrived back home after the seemingly endless journey through empty space. I felt the bottom of my feet slowly descend onto the soft grass below. The smell of the always clean lake and freshly grown fields of grass outside our home made me feel a bit relieved to be back home where I could be alone. The peaceful sound of the small waves splashing against the crest around the lake was soothing to hear after such a long and interesting day. But even the sweet sensation of home could not fix my sour mood.

I turned my back to Whis and began walking back toward our little temple of a home. I still remember the ghastly feeling of anger and annoyance that I had against my teacher, trying my best to not look at him in any noticeable way. As I got closer toward home, I already knew far too well that Whis already knew something was wrong and was standing there behind me, waiting for me to say something. I wanted nothing more than to just head back inside and go directly back to bed for any amount of time as I so pleased. How long I rested with each nap was something that I cared very little about.

"Something wrong, Lord Beerus?" the teal wizard finally got up and asked in his usual nonchalant manner. I stopped dead in my tracks, standing there silently for a few seconds before eventually choosing to turn around and answering my Master's call.

"You know exactly what's wrong!" I shouted back, my teeth furiously grinding between my gums. Whis stayed quiet for a long moment before giving me a quick chuckle. At that point I felt as if my rage could break the very planet I was standing on.

"You're not upset about the whole 'not getting the challenge you wanted' thing, are you? Look Beerus, I know how excited you were to finally meet this Super Saiyan God person, but you must remember that you are the God of Destruction. I don't think anyone could really pose a real threat to someone like you..."

My patience quickly subsided with him and I wasted no time in waiting for him to finish that last statement. "That's not what I'm upset about!" I levitated off of the ground and shot towards him like a bullet as to stare at him face to face. My breath was heavy and my teeth were now showing themselves front and center. Whis just stood there, not even showing the slightest bit of surprise as I huffed at him. He was as silent as ever, looking like he almost couldn't care less. And as far as I could tell, he didn't. Eventually, though, I calmed down.

"Are you calm now?" he asked me. I gave him an unapologetic growl, turning my attention away from him and looking out towards the lake just a few yards away. I watched several large waves appear and collapse just as quickly over the water. That was when I noticed that my anger was affecting the lake. It was a common thing, though. I didn't think that much of it at the time. I had gotten much more angry around home before. I can even remember growing just the slightest bit agitated when I caught Whis cheating at a game of rummy and unintentionally destroying an entire galaxy. So I was at least glad to see that I had effectively calmed down before I damaged anything massive like a small moon or even a planet. But then again, I had only just began to notice the water's strange activity, so for all I know I probably did.

"Yes. I'm...calm," I reluctantly answered. Whis put on his always puckered smirk.

"Good. Now tell me what the problem is," he ordered as he brought his face closer to my cheek. I could feel his breath against my face, and let me tell you, it wasn't the least bit pleasant.

I remained quiet. I was more confused and dare I say baffled than I was angry at that point. I just could not understand how Whis didn't see why I was upset with him. After what he had just done in front of me a half an hour ago. After how purely unapologetic my outburst had just been. Being the one who had basically raised me from a simple minor mortal to the single most feared being in this universe, saying that I was surprised at how clueless my Master truly was could be nominated for the understatement of the century award. After swallowing my last few urges to scream out at him, I soon turned back to face my Master and was instantly confronted by his cold, guilt filled stare. I hated that stare. It was the stare he would always give me when I went out of HIS line. But after somehow finding a way to look past it, I continued.

"Whis...do you remember what you said to the Saiyan God while we were there?" I asked. Whis puzzled for a moment before something eventually crossed his mind.

"Are you referring to when I explained to him and his Saiyan companions about how many Saiyans were really needed to complete the trans..." I interrupted him once again with the same growl I had used earlier. I had had enough of guessing games for one day.

"Of course not! I'm taking about what you said to him just before we left! About my job!" I did my best to make it as clear as day for him to figure it out on his own without having to rely on my directly telling him. Then, as I had hoped, he finally got it.

"You don't mean when I asked him if he wanted to have your job after you were dead, do you?" he asked like a fool. The tone in his voice showed that he was in slight disbelief that that was what I was upset about. I couldn't understand why. I mean, after everything that had happened that day, what else could I possibly still be mad about? I had already gotten over the silly pudding incident, as disappointed as I still was that I never got one. I was not upset about not having the chance to destroy the Earth. Even someone as dimwitted as who Whis appeared to be should have known that I was just pretending that I had lost all of my remaining power and was just using that as an excuse to hide the fact that for the first time in my life, I had found the heart not to destroy something. So why, of all people, could Whis not see how something like just walking up in front of me and offering some other powerful being the chance to take my job would not in any way upset me?

"Yes," I replied, my hatred filled voice muffled through my enclosed jaw. "...that. You can't just give someone else my job! I'd still be mad if you did it behind my back, but right in front of me? Really?!"

I could see Whis roll his eyes at me. Something that I was not quite fond of. Those eyes made it just about impossible for me to take him seriously anymore. I was on the verge of tuning out whatever he had to say next, but I persisted on. At least one of us had to be the mature, logical one in this little conversation.

"Trust your Master, Lord Beerus, but this really isn't as big a deal as you're making it out to be. Simply asking the Saiyan if he wanted to take your place after you died. You aren't dead yet, so why should it matter now?"

Why would it matter now? WHY WOULD IT MATTER NOW? Why WOULDN'T it matter now? Does he really think that he can up and try to replace me and hope that I would just be fine with it? I may be a bit childish at times. Even a bit spoiled and look past important details once or twice. But if there's one thing I'm not, it's an idiot. And not being said idiot, I thought I knew exactly was Whis was trying to do.

"I won't let you make plans with others if it involves taking my place as God! I am the God of Destruction, and I will be such for several more centuries to come. I know this and you know this. So why the hell would you go and try to give my duty to someone else when you know that they'll never get it? It is because you're secretly hoping that they'll take the offer? That maybe I'll die a bit sooner than expected and you won't have to deal with me anymore!? Like a middle-aged women wishing for her mother to die so that she can have some peace and quiet!?" I shouted in a fury, the grass around me whispering as they blew against the air like a thousand small trees in the middle of a deadly twister.

I saw Whis' eyes open wider than I expected once I finished. I knew that it could only mean two things. Either I had figured him out and he was shocked that I was able to deduce his plans so easily, or that he was surprise at how much I seemed to be overreacting to something which he deems as not a big deal. Of course, I already knew which one it was.

"No, that...that isn't it at all," Whis replied, just as I expected he would. "You've got it all wrong."

"Than why?" I said back, making sure to imply that I wanted an actual answer this time. "WHY OFFER SOMEONE ELSE MY JOB IF THEY ARE TO NEVER GET IT!? THAT MAKES NO SENSE!"

Whis took a long sigh. A bit too long for my taste. I could not figure out whether he was just as annoyed as I was or that he was simply stalling to think of a convincing reply. Finally, he spoke.

"You say that you will last for many more centuries to come, but that it not as true as you may believe." he said back. I raised an eyebrow at him, his unexpected response confusing me. "You are not immortal, Lord Beerus. You are still growing old. You've only been able to maintain your youthfulness in check for so long so that you can keep your job from becoming more difficult. But under your seemingly ageless body, time is slowly taking its toll on you. Soon, you will look just as you do now, but you will feel very much different. You will grow old, loose your powers, and eventually, die. But this Saiyan has been around for a lot less time than you have. And with his new God powers, he now has the same abilities that you now have. Didn't you notice that while you were fighting him as a God, he seemed to look a lot younger than before?"

I pondered his question for a moment before realizing something that I had not noticed before. Yes. Yes, he did seem to turn younger when he became a God. His muscles became less bulky and his height was just slightly lower than it originally was. I had made no effort to notice it just moments earlier when I was fighting him, but looking back now, re-imagining the image of the Saiyan God floating in the air above the human city in front of me, I could now see what Whis might have been talking about.

"When an being with such unimaginable power like yourself or the Saiyan reaches God status, they are instantly given the blissful gift of never having to worry about growing old. At least, not physically. But they can still loose their power over time and die of old age, even if it takes so much longer. Just as you will one day. You may be strong, yes, but that power will one day run its course and disappear over time. And when it does, someone will have to take your place and do your job. It is how the universe works."

I scowled at my Master's words. "I know that! You've told me all of this before, but that doesn't explain why you would just get up and ask him now! I know that I'm growing old, but I'm still here, aren't I? Besides, you already got your say in who should be the next God of Destruction when you chose me to be your successor! You don't get to choose twice!"

Yes, it is true. Whis was the original God of Destruction long before I came along. But as a God ages, they must find another being out somewhere in the universe, namely one that is the strongest, and pick them to be their successor after they loose their power and either step down or die as the God themselves. Whis of course chose to step down and hand the job down to me when I was just a young teenager instead of deciding to stay being the God of Destruction until death eventually forced him to retire. But the fact that he thought that he could choose my successor as well really did not sit well with me. I was fully capable of choosing a successor on my own, so why would I need him to choose one for me?

I could tell that Whis was reluctant to answer. He opened his mouth as if he was preparing to give a speech, but then shut it just as quickly. He appeared to be at a loss for words. I was having some odd bit of mood swings at that point. I was angry that he wasn't answering. I was joyful that I might have finally caught him. And I was curious as to what he was going to say next. Sooner than I expected, though, he found his words and seemed to put them together flawlessly.

"Because as I watched you fight back on Earth, as I watched you exchange punches with the young Saiyan, I could see just from watching that you were both greatly enjoying your little brawl. This Saiyan is currently the only being in all of existence that has ever been able to challenge and actually put up a decent fight with the current God of Destruction without having been one himself. You've grown tired of our routine, Lord Beerus. You don't have to hide the fact that you've missed the thrill of battle from me. That is why you were so eager to fight this Saiyan after you woke up. It is why you spared his life after the battle was over. You enjoyed fighting with him so much that even after promising to destroy the planet if he lost, you decided against it simply because you were so thankful of the Saiyan for finally bringing some excitement back into your life. Honestly, that has got to be the first time I've ever seen you go back on a promise, Lord Beerus."

Silence. That was all that took place between is after that. Silence. I said nothing and he said nothing for a good long while. Probably longer than I can even remember. I just blankly stared at him, as he did with me. It was quite a boring few seconds, but Whis eventually broke the dull silence.

"I apologize if I offended you, Lord Beerus. But if I am to die, I must make sure that when you do have a student of your own, that he will be strong enough to gratify your thirst for a decent fight. This Saiyan God is the closest I think that we will ever come to finding someone who will actually be able to pose a challenge to you. I don't want you to grow bored of life when you are older, Lord Beerus. This Saiyan God had the potential to please your excitement for battle, but since he turned down the offer, I suppose that it is out of the question now."

Well...that explained a lot. So he did it out of care, did he? He didn't want me to loose such a strong opponent and be forced to choose one that was so much weaker than I was as the next God, did he? Well, as much as I have grown to appreciate his small gesture of compassion, I still wish he would have just told me that in the first place before openly asking the Saiyan right off the bat. I prefer to know the reasoning behind my Master's decisions before he acts upon them.

"I don't need that Saiyan God's attention to keep my life a float when I grow old," I replied stubbornly. "I'll find my own student when the time comes, and he will not disappoint me or make my life boring. I think I am fully capable of making my own decisions and choosing my own successor."

"Very well. I promise, I won't ask anyone again. But remember, Beerus. I am still much older than you are and I will die before you do. When I do, there will be no one left that will be able to defeat you in battle. You will then officially be the strongest fighter in this entire universe. When that time does eventually come, just make sure that you don't let yourself become old and depressed without anyone to challenge you. Now then, how about we put this little chat behind us and just relax." Whis spoke his final say in the argument and sat down beside my small tree stump.

I obeyed his wishes and sat down myself, yawning in exhaustion from such a strange experience that that day had brought. "Fine. And don't worry about me growing 'old and depressed' as you say. Because trust me, I won't."

* * *

As hard as I still try, I could not tell you for the life of me how long it has been since we had that conversation. Oh, how dreadfully wrong I was. The centuries have not been quite as soft on me as I had previously hoped. I can feel just a portion my strength slip away from me more and more each passing day. It is an unforgiving and tauntingly slow process. Yet my body seemed entirely unaffected. No wrinkles, no blemishes, no unexpected hair growing in strange places where it hadn't been before. No, on the outside, I'm still as young as ever. But that hardly makes up for the price of having to tremble out of bed each morning. Not to mention the painfully annoying inability to remember everything that happened just an hour earlier. And don't even bring up my now crippled sense of hearing. It truly is an unforgiving punishment; being old, that is.

As for Whis; the green wizard passed on ages ago. I couldn't begin to tell you how boring it is around here without him. My new student fails miserably in making anything interesting and only succeeds in causing trouble and bringing me all the more misery. He didn't even say anything to me before he died. He just sort of...disappeared. He only left his staff, lying there on the stone floor, useless. I wasted no time and took control of the staff myself, using it to gather new knowledge of the universe and hand such discoveries down to my student as to help me make concrete decisions of which planets shall be destroyed next and for what reasons, just as my Master did for me. I only wish that he stop wasting his time sleeping in his bed for years on end and actually follow through with his choices and do his job when the time comes. I've long since moved on from sleeping for decades at a time. I rarely sleep nowadays. My student, however, can't seem to tell the difference between the phrases "Time to get out of bed!" and "Please, keep ignoring me!".

In case you're wondering, his name is Volka. A green lizard looking boy with dark yellow eyes, long purple scales running down his back, and muscles that would probably make Whis jealous if he were here. We argue on occasions, but for the most part, he obeys pretty much everything I say (excluding sleeping, as I previously mentioned). He prefers to be called by his name, but I still just call him 'student' as that was what Whis called me for most of my youth. I wouldn't exactly call us 'friends', but I wouldn't say that we don't get along most of the time. He understands my orders and follows through with them while I respect his privacy and choose to leave him alone when he wants to be left as such. It has only been about two centuries since I took him in, and already we know each other's personalities inside and out. He's mostly free-spirited and does what he pleases when not being scolded by me, but usually keeps to himself and sits near the lake outside. I still don't know what he finds so interesting about that water, but he'll just walk out there and stare at it, poking his hand in every once in a while and maybe on occasion talk to the fish that live below. He's an odd boy, sure, but he's still learning. Being the God of Destruction is a difficult job to have, so I'm willing to cut him some extra slack.

Sometimes I wonder if that Saiyan Goku would have made a good God if he had actually taken the job after all. But at this point, all I CAN do is wonder. The poor monkey died off centuries ago. He could have used his newly discovered God powers to live at least a hundred times longer, but instead he chose to forget about the transformation all together and die with his family. I can't say that in some ways I don't respect his decision, but no matter how hard I try, I just can't see the reasoning behind such a thing. In what way is death as a mortal any better than a thousand year long life as a God?

But for whatever strange and unimaginable reason, the Super Saiyan God is no more, and I have yet to come across any other being with the same amount of raw power as he had. My new student may be strong, which is why I chose him out of all the other lifeforms in the universe to be the next God of Destruction, but he is still no where near the amount of strength as that one single Saiyan had all those decades ago. I can't say that I miss him, but it was a bit nice to know that there was at least one person out there who came close to my level of power. I'm not sure what it was, but having the Saiyan God around just made the universe around me a bit more...interesting. He and I were a lot alike in some ways. Maybe in more ways than I now know.

But now, with both Whis and the Saiyan God gone from existence, there is only me and my student. And let me tell you; life has never been so unbearable until this point. Every waking moment of my life has just been the same old thing. I wake my student up, he does his job and destroys a few planets, we train, and we go right back too bed, just to start the exact same thing the next time we choose to wake up. It is so painfully boring around here. I want my sense of challenge back! I want the same feeling of excitement that I got from visiting the Super Saiyan God back! But with my weak student being the only company I have left, I honestly don't think that I'll ever feel that same sense of excitement again. My student is now the second strongest being in the entire universe, and even training with him isn't fun. That is, if you can even call it training. All it really is is me jumping from side to side, avoiding his slow and pointless attacks until I eventually get tired of jumping around and give him just a tiny tap against his neck, ending the fight. Every. Damn. Time.

I should have known better than to be so uptight with Whis and his decision to ask the Saiyan to be my student. As much as it pains me to admit it, he truly was much wiser than I ever was, and possibly even more than I am now. He knew that this would happen, and I chose to just ignore him. I was far too cocky and hot-headed in those days. However, one good thing I can say about my student is that he isn't as arrogant as I was back then. He already knows that he is strong, but still has his down to Earth mindset. I'm guessing that if I were to do the same thing as offer his job to another being, he would not be as stubborn as I was and possibly see the same logic in my choice. But unfortunately, that has yet to happen since everyone in this entire damn universe is just so pathetically weak.

I honestly don't know what I am to do with myself now. Should I just keep repeating this dull routine that I have going and let death take me when the time comes, or do I actually get up and try to fix my boring life in some way? But what is there to fix? This is just the way my life is now. My student still remains to be the strongest living being aside from myself, and I can't just automatically make him stronger. I've tried every martial art method in the universe to try and make Volka at least partially challenging, but to my great despair, the strength that I carry is just too powerful for him reach. Maybe if I were a bit weaker, but no matter how old I get, even on my worst day, I'm still light-years stronger than my student could ever hope to be. Being the strongest certainly is...unrewarding. A life without challenge is a life without meaning.

We just finished our last training session of the week. We were both extremely tired at that point and decided that it was time to head back to bed and wake up in a few months or so. I had just used my finishing attack and my student fell to the ground like a stack of bricks. I whistled into the wind as I strolled in an uncaring manner back toward the house. I could hear my students moans from behind me as he laid there in the wet field of grass. He would usually choose to stay there for a bit as I made my way back to the house. He would gather up his strength, maybe look at the lake for a while, and meet me back inside a few hours later before finally heading to bed. But this time, however, he made a different decision.

"Wait! Master Beerus!" he called to me from below my feet. Curious, I turned around to look at him and saw that he was already back on his feet, his dukes held out in front of him and his legs spread out in attack position. I was a bit surprise at my student at first, but the feeling quickly subsided and I headed back towards home.

I could feel his power once again begin to rise. He wanted to keep going. This was something that he had not done in the past. I turned back to him and shrugged at his attempted at continuing, which seemed to make him a bit angry from what I could tell. "We're done for today. You're already out of power. It's time to head back in and sleep. We'll try again the next time."

"No!" he yelled at me, which just so happened to be another thing he had not done before. He was certainly acting strange today. But even after my little order was given, he still never left his fighting stance and still chose to keep fighting. "I won't give up so easily anymore! I'm the new God of Destruction! I have to be strong! And I will beat you someday! It may not be today! It may even take a thousand years! But as long as I keep going and push past my limits, I WILL beat you someday!"

It was then that I felt something. A feeling I had not felt in years. I almost didn't recognize it when I first felt it. But seeing my student like that, seeing his zeal to continue on and keep fighting made me remember being just a child training with my Master. It made me remember being back on Earth, battling the Super Saiyan God high above the planet's atmosphere. It was a feeling that had been on my mind for many centuries now and was starting to loose its place inside me. Was this my long awaited return of excitement? I knew that there was only one way to test my theory.

"Fine. Come at me with all you've got!" I announced, my arms spread out beside me as to give my student a proper view of what he was going up against. He smiled at me. Say of me what you will, but when I saw that grin on my student's face, I just couldn't help but smile back. Then, Volka jumped forward towards me. He threw a barrage of punches toward my face. I easily avoided each of them. I could see the sweat pouring down his face like raindrops against a glass window during a storm. He was trying his very hardest to hit me while I barely felt like I was trying at all. It wasn't much fun for me, but for him, this small session seemed to be the bees knees for my young student. He was giving it his all, and even if it wasn't good enough...or even good in general, he kept going and didn't stop for any reason whatsoever. He needed this. He wanted this feeling of excitement. I could see it in his eyes as he swung at me. He loved it. He loved every second of it. It was then that I saw a lot of myself in his young eyes.

Then, just like always, I suddenly disappeared behind his back and gave him the same tap on the neck as I always gave him. And still just like always, his power drained like water pouring onto the soil of a plant, causing him to loose control of his balance and fall to his side. He remained there motionless for a good minute before finally gasping for air and letting his eyes open. He looked up to me as I stared down at him with a blank face. He smiled, causing me to instinctively smile back.

"Like I said." he said in a sore voice, his pupils nearly rolling to the top of his eyes as he was preparing to fall asleep right then and there. "It may not be...today. But I...will..." and with that final word, he shut his eyes and rested.

I remained standing there above him for longer than I could count. It may have just been a silent stare, but I'll be damned if not even for a single second did that wide smile leave my face. Eventually, I decided not to wake my tired student and just carry him inside with my own two hands. Throwing the winded fighter over my shoulder, I slowly walked back towards the house, a new feeling of joy consuming my every thought. For in just one small training exercise that lasted not even for an entire minute, my young student had given me a feeling that I had long since forgotten until today. And by the excited attitude that my student was giving me, I knew that this feeling would not be going away any time soon.

And as expected, from that day on, the training sessions continued just as they had been for the past two centuries. Only this time, we both were now enjoying ourselves far more than we had ever been before. Time and time again, we fought each other until my student was on his very last breath, and then we fought some more. It was not that different from before, excluding the now extended time length, but for some odd reason, I could not help but find a bit more enjoyment this time around. Whether it be on accident or purely on purpose, my student had brought back something amazing into my lonely and boring life. I still have yet to find out what it is about his new attitude that makes it all so much more engaging, but whatever it is, it only seems to grow each and every passing day. I'm possibly considering thanking my student for what he's done for me, but I am still his master, and I do have an image that needs to be kept in tact. But then again, maybe I don't need to tell him. Maybe, in some ways, he already knows. And if that's the case, then I won't bother wasting his time telling him information that he knows already. I'll only fight. And I'll keep fighting for him as long as he keeps doing the same for me. Aging may be a pain, but it's still nice to have a little excitement back in my life to make it a bit less painful. Thank you, my student. I have a feeling that the next God of Destruction, whoever that may be, will be in pretty good hands. Just don't go too easy on him, alright?


End file.
